The invention concerns structure and management of a computer data base comprising programs and data stored in the form of objects, wherein there are different object versions and the objects are made up of several components.
In software development for computer systems a longstanding requirement has been to subdivide larger software objects, i.e. programs and data, belonging to the same package into smaller components to render the entire object more readily manageable. For changing the object, if required, only the component concerned has to be copied and changed, while the other components remain unchanged. Any such unchanged components then constitute an old version of the object, whereas the copied and changed component along with the unchanged components form a new version. Despite the fact that such change is limited to a single component, many computer systems also copy the components that remain unchanged, storing them as a new version along with the changed component. As a result, a plurality of components exist several times over so that storage space in the storage means of the computer system is wasted.
It is the object of the invention to provide a method of managing programs and data of the previously described kind which permits optimum use of the storage means.